Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The joint lot sizing and scheduling problem can be considered as an evolvement of the joint economic lot size problem which has drawn researchers’ interests for decades. The objective of this paper is to find the effect of a capacitated multi-period supply chain design parameters on joint lot sizing and scheduling decisions for different holding and penalty costs. The supply chain deals with two raw materials suppliers. The production facility produces two products which are shipped to customers through distribution centers. A mathematical model is developed to determine optimum quantities of purchased raw materials, production schedule (MPS), delivered quantities and raw material and products inventory for predetermined number of periods. The model is solved to maximize total supply chain profits. Results showed that at high capacity and low holding cost, the supply chain tends to produce only one product each period, for limited capacity and high value of holding cost, the supply chain may produce the two products together each period.

Quality is an important part of management in every enterprise. It is quality on which depends whether customers will buy products from a given enterprise, and, thus, the competitiveness of this enterprise on market. A special case is the quality of services and its assessment. There are many methods that can be used in such situations, which are widely described in the literature. It should be emphasized that in case of service quality, direct customer feedback about a given service is most often used, that is, the customers actively participate in this process. However, customers should be asked what method is the most friendly and least boring for them. The purpose of the paper is to present a survey on the use of methods of service quality assessment. In the paper preliminary results of the survey from point of view of customers are presented. The customers were asked to answer whether they were involved in such research, what their attitude to such research was, what research methods they encountered, and what problems occurred during such research.

In practice, with the aim of achieving competitiveness, the industrial sector has the primary function of looking for ways to increase productive performance, improve the quality of products and processes, and reduce waste and production costs. An alternative to these strategies is the deployment of improvement projects, following the DMAIC structure of the Six Sigma approach. This study aimed to present the results of Lean Six Sigma implementation oriented to cost management. A case study was carried out in an agro-industrial cooperative, specifically, in the grain receipts department. The tools applied in the case study were: Requirements Tree; Charts Pareto and Stratification; Cause and Effect Diagram; Failure Mode and Effect Analysis; Statistical Process Control, and; Control Array, respectively. These tools are widely used in quality management and continuous improvement of industrial processes, mainly. As result, it was possible to apply all the tools proposed by the methodology and achieve a satisfactory result of cost improvements. The improvements obtained in the department’s cost management system, as well as the increase in the capacity of the process, were both significant.

Supply contracts amongst suppliers and buyers can be used as powerful mechanisms to manage trade-offs between risks and costs in negotiations amid the constituent parts of the supply chain. In decentralized decision-making, as a trade transaction between a wholesaler and a retailer, social preferences can influence behavior of these decision makers. The objective of this study was to verify the effect of social preferences on transactions in supply chains, using Brazilian individuals with the purpose of comparing the results with those obtained in other countries. The methodology proposed in this study was quantitative, as variables already studied by previous studies were investigated. An experiment was conducted with three handlings (normal, status and relationship) simulating buying and selling situations in a supply chain. The results indicated that highlighting the performance status of a supply chain improves the efficiency of the chain when compared to normal transactions, or when there is a relationship between the links.

Present article discusses the production of concrete artifacts that use in their composition recycling aggregates of Solid Waste from Construction and Demolition (SWCD). The study was designed as experimental / comparative, with destructive tests of proof bodies made with recycled aggregates (test group) and with traditional aggregates (control group). Subsequent statistical analysis of the data collected from the comparison between these groups was conducted. The optimal dosage for artifacts produced with recycled aggregates was found, demonstrating that the choice of recycled materials could be an economical and environmentally sustainable solution in the context of the eco-innovations.

Latest studies reported that systems success measure suffers from mix of results and limited models that help in success measurement and evaluation. Because of systems models are domain specific and context related, there is a dire need for taking the measure to other perspectives like using related external factors such as management support or using software engineering theories such as ISO 25010. This study aimed to move the measure from a business perspective to other perspectives. This study investigated NIAS-Mukalla student satisfaction based on security, management support, computer anxiety and usefulness. All these independent variables found to be positively and significantly affected the satisfaction of the users. NIAS-Mukalla students were satisfied with the web-based systems.

Making innovations to become competitive is not always an easy task, and in the industrial sphere, this thinking becomes even more complex. In this sense, proper use in raw material transformation processes becomes very challenging for managers, since improving processes is a condition where more can be done with less. Thus, many organizations seek to develop improvements through existing activities using a variety of techniques that are addressed in the literature, such as value flow mapping, lean production, simulations, among others. Therefore, this article aims to study and apply the computational simulation, through the use of Tecnomatix Plant Simulation © software, to obtain the best relation between financial return and productivity of a upholstery production line. In the methodology of this work was carried out the structural proposition of five scenarios. For the construction of these, a current scenario of the production line was carried out and for each new scenario, operators were added with new tasks to be performed. Although the final results show a better financial return for scenario three, the results obtained in scenario five are significant in terms of productivity indicators, although the cost with extra operators is much higher than in the other scenarios. Thus, it was clear the relevance of applying simulation in the production line, since the model assisted the managers in the decision making.

The purpose of this article was to make a documentary analysis of value creation in private higher education in a postgraduate program at a University located in the Rio Pardo / RS Valley. Value co-creation has become important in the last few decades, allowing for steady improvements for companies. In this sense, one of the main characteristics of value creation is to understand consumer behavior, as well as to identify their needs and desires. In this way, in private higher education, more precisely in the university environment, participation, interaction, relationships and mutual exchange of experiences between teacher and student occurs, that is, so that the process of teaching learning between the parties is satisfactory. Methodologically, this article was carried out through a qualitative descriptive approach, through a documentary analysis in the program site, in the regulation of the same, and, contract of provision of academic services. Still, it is interesting to note that value creation in education is directly related to the quality of education. Finally, the volume of studies about the process of value creation in education is expressly reduced.

The emergence of emergency orders, in the course of services already underway, in an electricity distribution concessionaire is inevitable, characterizing a dynamic scenario. Minimizing the delays resulting from these emergencies is a challenge for companies that provide this type of service. In this way, such companies need strategies to meet the needs of customers while meeting regulatory requirements. Aiming at this routing problem, the following work aims to identify evaluation criteria in the dispatch of these emergency orders and the impacts that these criteria will result in the execution times of these work orders in an electricity distribution company. As findings of this research, we verify that the demand exceeds the capacity of the teams and that the orders end up being passed on to the next day. Through the criteria, it was possible to prioritize commercial and emergency orders and analyze the impact generated.

Although English language is considered an essential requirement to find a position in the Brazilian work market, little do we know about what proficiency level is expected from workers by companies and how language assessment occurs at work. This investigation was developed in an automation company located in São Paulo metropolitan area. It is a case study which aimed to better understand the language use expectations and analyze the assessment process to identify: the assessment tools used in the company, its language view and if the assessment process meets the company’s language use expectations. This study uses questionnaires, interviews and documents analysis for data collection and triangulation of sources. The company is a place where English is used in daily tasks due to international partnerships and taught in an in-company course. The results show a mismatch between the proficiency and achievement tests applied in the company and its language view. In addition English language is a gatekeeper in recruitment process only for some positions. The language use expectations for workers vary according to their position and department but are not assessed likewise.